Bookshelf Tour

Hello friends! This week I decided to write something light and casual. I’ve just moved, and reorganized what I call my “nerd shelf.” It’s where I put all my stuffed animals and figurines and other memorabilia that I have gathered over the years of birthdays and vacations. It also doubles as my YouTube video set. I’m pretty proud of how I managed to set it all up, so I just wanted to show it off!

Top Shelf

On either ends is a pair of book ends. They are Portal themed.

From left to right:

a Zelda map puzzle. It’s actually quite tricky since it’s all brown with a bit of darker brown markings.

a box from a birthday present from my friend Jenn. It held a chain and five different Sailor Moon pendants to change off depending on which you wanted that day! The necklaces are in my room with the rest of my jewelry, but I couldn’t help but keep the box!

A coca cola with my name on it! Wish it were a Diet Coke, since they’re my addiction, but hey I really wanted one with my name. I had to wait until the second release of names, but I got one.

A Vault-Tec bobble head. This is just the generic one, but one day I hope to have a bunch of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L and skill ones.

a box from Ollivander’s wand shop in Diagon Alley in Universal. I couldn’t help but get a new wand from there! On top of that is the map that comes with the interactive wand that allows you to “cast a spell” at certain spots in the park.

Han Solo bobblehead from Pop!

Next are my wands. I have three. The first I bought as part of a magic kit from the Medieval Faire. You’ll see more parts of that later. The middle one is a replica of Hermione’s wand, given to me by my friends Joe and Lisa. They got it for me for my birthday from the Harry Potter across the pond. The last is the interactive wand I bought myself in Universal. It’s a holly wand.

The wands are sitting in the collector cup you can buy when you get a frozen or cold Butterbeer, again in Universal. I got a lot of my Harry Potter stuff from Universal, if you haven’t noticed. Also in the cup, to stabalize the wands a bit, is the sleeve off of the cup from the hot version of Butterbeer. I’m a bit crazy.

First compartment

Pokemon section! My childhood favourite was Squirtle, my adulthood favourite is Pikachu, and Snorlax is a Pokemon that I just relate to on a deep, personal level. The Pokeball is actually something I made myself by knitting with a spool. I have about four kicking around because at one point I was trying to sell them online.

Second compartment

More Harry Potter stuff! The top left is remains of a Halloween costume. My friends and I went as the founders of Hogwarts, AKA two men and two women wearing red, green, blue, and yellow respectively. So there is a lion for Gryffindor, a badger for Hufflepuff (or the closest I could find), a raven for Ravenclaw, and I’m not sure where the snake for Slytherin went. They are all balanced on a pygmy puff, an adorable creature. If you squeeze it, it makes an adorable cooing noise. To the right is the Pop! figure for Harry Potter himself, standing behind packaging for the chocolate frogs you get from Honeydukes. The card inside is Gilderoy Lockhart.

Third compartment

This is my more general Nintendo section. I have my Game Boy Color propped up when I’m not playing it. I actually used the stand for the WiiU pad! I also have my giant Yoshi sitting and guarding my Mabel amiibo from Animal Crossing: New Leaf and my Pikachu Nanoblock figure. I built that cute little thing all by myself.

Fourth compartment

Second row gets a bit less perfectly categorized. This one has the woolly version of the Yoshi amiibo. I didn’t think the Nintendo compartment needed anymore Yoshi in it, since it was about 97% Yoshi already. We also have my Vault boy Pop! figure. The two teddy bears are the “Somebody at University of Waterloo/Wilfrid Laurier University loves you!” bears that Nick and I exchanged. The dirty, naked one is the one given to me, and it’s so tattered due to years of sleeping with it and cuddling it. The shirt is also off because it started to crack and peel off because of the use, and now it lives in a memory box. The one on the right is the one I got for Nick when I moved to Waterloo. And creeping in the shadows in a Doctor Who stuffed adipose, which in the show is a living portion of human fat with legs and a face. Cute!

Fifth compartment

This is another magic themed section. The white lion was bought at African Lion Safari, and it lives here because of the lion/Gryffindor connection. Then I have the rest of the magic kit from the Medieval Faire: the pet owl and the potion making kit. The owl is really soft and he’s actually wearing a witch hat. The potion making kit has a bottle of phoenix tears, griffin hair, and basilisk teeth. Then we have a Pop! figure of Dumbledore and Voldemort. I believe those, in addition to the Harry Potter one was a gift from Joe and Lisa as well. Then at the top of them all is Gandalf. That is actually a figure that I got off a collectors cup you could buy at the cinema when I went to see one of the Hobbit movies. Pretty random right? But I keep everything.

Sixth compartment

Here we have some video game type things, and some other randoms. The left is a stuffed version of the cupcake that Chica holds in Five Nights at Freddy’s. It’s adorably terrifying. The other large thing is obviously a creeper from Minecraft, but I actually sewed that myself! It was a gift for Nick when we were still living long distance. That’s why the sewing job is a little sketchy. Then in the front row we have a mockingjay pin from the Hunger Games, an adorable Diablo figure, and a Doc Brown Pop! figure. I believe those last three came from a Loot Crate.

Seventh compartment

The bottom shelves are almost entirely non-merchandise stuff. These are just some of my stuffed animals. The one on the left is actually a stuffed hedgehog that my friend Olivia made years ago. She made it in university when Nick, she, and all their friends were living in a house together. It became the mascot of the house, and therefore named Teaky, named after the street the house was on Teakwood. He’s wearing a D&D bow tie I got from a Loot Crate. The giraffe is from African Lion Safari, when Nick and I went a couple years ago. He’s sitting on a moose I bought while camping in Algonquin Provincial Park. It is a bit worn due to the fact that Bear got his teeth around him. Now he only has one eye.

Eighth compartment

So you might notice that there seems to be an adorable penguin, and his weird, slightly deformed cousin. Well the cute one is one I bought from Niagra Falls I believe, when Nick and I went for our anniversary. The lumpy one is my attempt to make a penguin pillow with the same technique I made the Pokeballs. Doesn’t look so hot when you try to do small details. I also didn’t stuff it enough, which is why it looks a bit deflated. Ah well. To the right stacked up is a small manta ray and a shark. They’re from the Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. Under it all is a replica of the hoverboard from Back to the Future 2.

Final compartment

Here we have a teddy bear I’ve had since I was a child. It belonged to my aunt, and I believe it belonged to her grandmother at one point. It’s not a cuddly teddy bear, but one with stiff limbs for posing and decoration. That didn’t stop me sleeping with him in my youth, where every teddy bear is a cuddly teddy bear. In front of him is actually a Doctor Who themed Yahtzee game. You’re supposed to use the dalek as a dice cup! Then we have a minion hackey-sac I got for Nick since he absolutely loves the Despicable Me. The big purple cow is a gift a friend in high school won for me at a fair. The beaver is another souvenir from Algonquin Provincial Park. It is called a “beaver in a can, and came packing in a tin can like soup. A bit disturbing, but very relieving when a whole mini beaver comes out. Finally, the small gear shaped coin was a prize I won from an escape room. You got one if you got out under the time limit, it was your birthday, or you promised to leave a review on Facebook. I left a review on Facebook. That’s all I have to say.

And that’s your lot! I also have cork boards hung up above the shelf, but those aren’t put together at the moment and I’m also redesigning them. I hope that was an interesting look into my memories and sentimentality. Thanks for reading and later days!